Cosmic country, folk rockers The Hanging Stars return to The Brunswick this autumn. The London-based band return with their sixth album, Just A Day – a dazzling collection of four-part harmonies, shimmering twelve-string guitars and chiming songs, touching on themes of longing, new beginnings and the fragility of the everyday. Recorded at Edwyn Collins’ legendary Clashnarrow Studios in the Scottish Highlands, the album marks a bold new chapter for the band, produced by Teenage Fanclub’s Gerard Love and Dexy’s Sean Read.
A line-up change at the end of 2024 proved to be a galvanising moment for The Hanging Stars. “We needed to rethink things,” says guitarist Patrick Ralla. “A new, leaner approach – bass, drums, guitars, four-part harmonies. Certainly worked for The Byrds, Big Star and Teenage Fanclub.” The result is a wonderfully energising record full of catchy hooks and a renewed vision. The songs are designed to take the listener away from it all… even if it’s just for a little while.
Central to the record’s new direction was the involvement of Gerard Love – one third of Teenage Fanclub’s celebrated songwriting trio and the artist behind Lightships. Starting from demos exchanged between Glasgow and London, Love helped the band strip things back to their essence, ever so gently guiding them toward their finest work to date. He also joined the band for a week of recording, contributing vocals, arrangement ideas and by all accounts a mean vegan curry. The new album was produced and engineered by longtime collaborator Sean Read, with overdubs and mixing completed at Read’s Famous Times Studios over the spring of 2025, and additional recording at bassist Paul Milne’s Seagull Studios in East London. Drummer Paulie Cobra anchors the record with his defining beat, lending his voice to the soaring four-part harmonies. A core figure in the band’s story, Cobra has embarked on a prolonged sabbatical, making way for their new live drummer Charlie Salvidge (TOY, Proper Ornaments, Great Silkie) who will join the band on the road.
Frontman and songwriter Richard Olson reaches a creative high point with Just A Day, which opens in a surge of optimism with “All Your Yesterdays”, to “The Glasshouse”’s twelve-string-jangle-meets-New-York-circa-1976 meditation on wealth and class, to “Let It Slide” a feel-good track with a sting in its tail, to the country gospel drone of “Big Red Car” and meditative title track “Just A Day” laments for the day just gone. There are additional compositions from Patrick Ralla (“Keep On Making Me Wait”) and the first inclusion for bassist Paul Milne who wrote the party track “Show Me The Way”.
The Hanging Stars play The Brunswick Pub on Saturday 24th October.
Tickets are available online here.
Photo credit Dean Chalkley
